Denver Light Rail fails dues to poor scheduling

Light rail a failure Saturday night
by DP Opinion on October 9, 2007


In the Monday 8 October Issue - your story on the “Downtown Jumping” made me laugh — Saturday in Denver was quite an experience … at least for those of us who chose to ride the Light Rail — I am used to Europe where you can set your watch by the train. Saturday night convinced me that the RTD Light Rail is NOT a viable option for local transportation.

My wife and I went to the Mineral Station about 3:30 PM to catch the train
into town for the Genesis concert. Although RTD said they were putting
more people and trains into service to handle the load - there were only
two operative ticket machines at the Mineral Station (one of the busiest
for RTD) and a wait of over an hour in line. Note to RTD - provide the
ability to buy tickets on the Internet (easy and cost effective) and put
more people on duty on days like Saturday

When the concert got out at 1030 - the Rockies game had also ended. After waiting over an hour and watching only 2 trains going south that were packed to the roof, it was clear that we would be better off just waiting it out for an hour or so. When we came back at 12, the trains were still packed and I asked an RTD employee to call dispatch to see if they could get buses to take people to the Broadway station. The employee told me that this confusion was just standard business for RTD (this is a great way to run a transit solution). We returned home at nearly three AM. Although RTD said that they had put more people and trains on duty - it was clear it was just business as usual and RTD did not do anything to plan for the demand.

I am a big believer in using local transit - but have decided that I will
not use the Light Rail anymore for these types of events — someone needs
to fix this — if this was a private company, it could not stay in business
with this approach.

Scott Simmons, Morrison